


Born at Night

by madgirlwithwifi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Manipulative Dumbledore, Parseltongue, Slytherin, Snakes, Social Isolation, Sorting Hat - Freeform, asshole gryffindors, everyone loves snakes, ooooh a mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-01 19:35:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2785193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madgirlwithwifi/pseuds/madgirlwithwifi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fallgate institute for abandoned children has been Layla`s home, with no apparent family a pair of letters and a locket to guide her through life at Hogwarts adaptations must be made and for a neutral party in a war that should not involve her it is a thin line to tread.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Born at Night

**Author's Note:**

> A couple of notes before we begin:  
> 1\. Harry still exists this is not one of those what could have happened fics where harry is a girl and sent away by the Dursley`s, no Harry exists in the same life he always has, just life at Hogwart`s and occasionally nearer to home will be slightly varied from the standard plot.  
> 2\. If you see a gaping plot hole either it`s there on purpose or I`m a total idiot so please do say. The same stands with spelling errors.  
> 3\. If you recognise phrases and the way this is written that is because this follows a very similar formula to the Harry Potter books (ie I used them as references) which leads me to the next point:  
> 4\. The rating may change later on, not important now.  
> 5\. The disclaimer, this work is a work of fiction none it belongs to me except the ocs etc (please don`t sue me).

Mrs Upton, of the Fallgate institute for abandoned children was a distinctly average woman; she was the last one to be involved in any sort of plotting or wrongdoing, attended church on a regular basis and took care of twenty children.  
Mrs Upton was one of four matrons who worked and lived in the Fallgate institute, which as the name suggests dealt with orphans and foundlings (occasionally a child from the care system passed through but not frequently). She was a plump but muscular woman with a perpetual frown though she could on occasion be found smiling at the younger children. It was a rare occasion that Carina Upton showed any kind of emotion at all, after all that was how a child should be raised in this world, to stand on their own two feet with little help from adult influence.  
Matron had had very little she wanted in her childhood, that was why she now worked at the place she was raised, with average grades, a bad temper and a large accumulation of bad habits from later life had led her to being a highly paranoid and superstitious person, which as you may have guessed was not a desirable trait when living with twenty children. However matron had a secret, or something that she thought was a secret, she hated the children, despised them actually, in fact often she pretended they didn`t exist because children, especially children with little or no love given to them become as far from normal as it is possible. Of course matron would hate for that little fact to get to the governors, she shuddered to think what the other matrons would say after all the only good gossip is harmful gossip.  
When Matron woke up the sunny, cold Monday our story starts on, there was nothing to suggest anything out of the ordinary would be happening. She frowned as her dress strained at the sides of her increasing girth, the children sighed as they woke to steaming breath and frozen feet. None of them noticed a lone figure watching the orphanage. At half past eight Matron turned on the stove and started to warm the porridge.  
It was then that she noticed the figure; after all it was sat on a bench opposite the window. For a second Matron didn`t believe what she had seen- then she looked up to check, there was a woman waiting for the bus but nobody on the bench. It was just a trick of the light on the glass she decided. Matron blinked and looked at the porridge. As she stirred she watched the woman from the corner of her eye she was reading the bus timetable and wearing some sort of long black dress. Matron sighed and put the woman out of her mind. As she served the porridge she thought of nothing put the three adoptions hopefully going through today.  
On the second to last bowl porridge was driven out of her mind by the large tawny owl now sat on the window ledge, Matron couldn`t bear birds, the very thought of one getting caught in her hair, foul things. She supposed it was some wild bird that had gotten loose, the nerve of that bird just to sit there staring at her, but by the time she got the window open it was gone. The next bowl appeared and a few minutes later matron arrived back in the kitchen her mind back on paperwork.  
Mrs Upton always sat with her back to the window in her office, if she hadn`t she might have been a little less absorbed by her mound of paperwork, she didn`t see the owl watching her through the window, even if the children playing outside did, however the children knew better than to approach matron`s window after a disastrous game of football. Matron had a perfectly normal, owl free morning, she screamed at five different children, sighed several important documents and reduced another child to tears. She was in a relatively peaceful mood until lunch time when she remembered she actually had to feed the brats.  
She had forgotten all about the owl in the window until she passed it on the window sill again. She eyed it angrily as she passed, she didn`t know why but it made her uneasy. It was on her way back past, clutching a large sandwich in her meaty fist that she saw it tapping. Fear flooded her, a bird following her, that was unnatural. She dashed back into her office pulled the curtains shut, seized her bag of salt when she changed her mind ... no she was being stupid one owl wasn`t so unusual, especially if it had been tamed, she was sure lots of people had tame owls. There was no point wasting good salt, she would have to clean up afterwards ... but all the same that owl...  
She found it a lot harder to concentrate on paperwork that afternoon and when she made tea at five o`clock she was still so worried she almost tripped over one of the children. ‘Move’ she grunted, as the small child stumbled and almost fell, it was a few seconds before she realised he was holding a bunch of owl feathers. He started crying and ran off as she glared at him.  
Matron was rooted to the spot, those owl feathers, she hurried to the kitchen and turned on the kettle, hoping she was imagining things, which she had never hoped before because she didn`t approve of her imagination. As she got out a mug the next thing she saw was the woman from this morning, she was stood by the railings directly outside the window, matron glared at her. The woman didn`t move, just gave matron what was probably a stern look. Matron was a bit shaken, but she was still determined to do nothing about it.  
The children had overall had a relatively normal day, school was dull and the traditional playground bullies were up to the same old tricks, they told matron all of this over a simple dinner. Matron tried to act normally. When the brats were in bed she went into the living room in time to catch the latest report on the evening news.  
‘And finally, another mysterious sighting of the cloud of green smoke that the cloud killers appear to leave behind this time over a small village in West Sussex, it has since been reported that there are at least four dead with others still coming in, everyday these madmen are still loose is a sad day for this great nation and all of its people’ The newsreader allowed himself a frown. ‘And now over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Can you promise us a lack of green clouds Jim?’   
‘Well Ted I can`t promise that but hopefully I can promise an end to the unusual showers of large hailstones currently affecting the South East should hopefully pass by tomorrow morning. Here`s to hoping for an end to strange occurrences. But I can promise a wet night tonight folks’  
Mrs Upton sat frozen in her armchair, clearly it hadn`t just been her plagued with weird occurrences, maybe the woman had been one of these mysterious cloud killers, she really really hoped not.  
I didn`t take much for her to go upstairs to bed, triple checking the locks on the doors as she went. She made the mistake of opening the curtains a sliver from her bedroom window, the woman was still there, and worse the owl was perched on her arm. She was staring straight at the window as if waiting for something.  
Was she imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with her drinking? If it did well there went her Friday night forgetting sessions- but no she didn`t think she could bear that.  
Matron got into bed, normally she fell asleep quickly but she lay awake turning it all over in her mind, her last comforting thought was that if this was all connected to alcohol, there was no reason for anybody to come near her. It couldn`t affect her...  
Now very right she was. It had nothing to do with alcohol at all.  
Mrs Upton might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep but the woman outside showed no signs of sleepiness, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the window of the muggle woman. She didn`t so much as quiver when a car door slammed in the next street, nor when two pigeons swooped overhead. In fact it was passed midnight before she even moved at all.   
Another woman appeared on the corner the woman was standing near appearing so suddenly and silently you`d have thought she just popped out of the ground. The woman`s arm shook and her head turned.  
Nothing like this woman had ever been seen on this street. She fat tall and very old, judging by the white of her hair, which rippled down her back luminescent in the glow of the streetlamps. She was wearing a long dress and a deep blue cloak which swept the ground. Her brown eyes were heavy, worn and seemed filled with sadness in the deep wrinkles of her face. This woman`s name was nurse Periwinkle.  
She seemed occupied by the small bundle in her arms, but realised she was being watched; the sight of the woman and the owl seemed to make her more sad for some reason. ‘She sighed and said I should have known.’  
The woman with the owl looked up; the streetlight above her flickered and died. If anyone looked out the window now all that could be seen were two shadowed figures that might not even exist. Nurse set off down the street towards the woman. She didn`t look at her but turned to face the window, after a moment speaking to her.  
‘I should`ve known you would have found the place.’  
She turned to look at the woman, who pulled down her hood nurse was now looking at a rather striking woman with long brown hair plied up and secured on top of her head in an old fashioned hairstyle. She looked utterly sorrowful.  
‘It is true then’ She stated.  
‘My dear child, I am so sorry for your loss, have you waited all day?’  
‘Of course I have, if this is to happen I need to know she will be safe, I could not bear to lose another’ Said the younger woman.  
‘That is if he is truly dead’  
‘That matters not now, what matters is that my child is safe’ She sniffed sadly.  
‘Oh yes she will be safe here,’ Nurse said calmly ‘You`d wouldn`t think it with how paranoid that woman is, but nevertheless she will be safe.’  
‘Even the muggles have noticed something wrong nurse, it was on their news’ She sighed wearily ‘They`re calling them the cloud killers, a bunch of murderers who leave a cloud of green smoke over the home of the victims.’  
‘At least we know they’re not totally stupid then, they were bound to notice something.’  
‘You can`t blame yourself, they brought it upon themselves, what with all of the you-know-whats and the killings, I mean I would`ve gone crazy, but to accuse him of that, well.’ Nurse almost smiled but appeared to think better of it.  
Nurse pulled out an old chain from her pocket hanging from the end was a large, silver locket it was clearly old and well cared for.  
‘Nurse you can`t be serious, that`s been in the family for years’ The younger woman gasped.  
‘There is no better purpose for it now that to stay with the heir of your family, after all you have carried it since birth, why should your daughter not?’ Nurse questioned ‘After all a letter on its own would not be much help for her, no kindness or caring in a letter, a family heirloom and a letter sealed inside for her to find and the letter for the orphanage.’  
‘Better I suppose’ whispered the younger woman ‘It will give some identity, some light in a dark life, I can only hope she takes it for what it is meant to be not out of some belief we were buying her off’  
‘If she is truly your daughter, then never’ Nurse promised.  
‘Why this place then Nurse, it is foul. That woman is foul, you couldn`t find a woman less believing and those children so violent and cruel, and the orphanage itself look at the state it is in.’  
‘You know it`s for the best lambkin there is no safe way for you to raise her, here is better than the line of fire.’  
‘Two letters and an old locket, is this how far we have sunk that that is all I can provide for my child, oh my poor baby.’ She started to weep and took the small bundle from the nurse`s arms and kissed the child on the forehead ‘may we meet again someday, my Layla, my dark child’  
Nurse gently took back the child and stepped through the gate in the railings, walked over to the front door and lay the Layla on the doorstep, tucking the locket chain around her throat and the letter explaining her into her hand. She then returned to the other woman. For a full minute they stood and stared at the tiny bundle as silent tears rolled down two pairs of cheeks. Nurse`s shoulders shook, and she was blinking furiously. What little life had been in the owl had seemingly faded from it.  
‘Well that`s that dear, come on now we have to get you settled’ Nurse soothed.  
‘Of course nurse.’ The younger whispered.   
With Nurse`s arm around her shoulders the odd pair walked off into the night. Nurse pretending not to notice the heartbreaking looks of sorrow the younger woman cast over her shoulder as they walked to the street corner. On the corner they stopped and as one looked back, the bundle could barely be seen but they both knew it was there.  
‘May the gods be with you child’ Nurse murmured, and in a twist of a heel the pair were gone, only a broken streetlamp said they were ever there.  
A chill wind blew down the street stirring up leaves across the pavement and on the doorstep a pair of cavernously blue eyes opened to see the stars above.  
****line break****  
On a similar dark street, in a small village by the name of Godric`s hollow Green light streamed from the window`s of a house that hadn`t been there two minutes ago. A scream of ‘Harry’ breaking the silent air.


End file.
